Riddle Me This
by QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Backstory of the Sphinx from the Triwizard Tournament. The boat ride and the company she kept.


**House/Team: Lions**

**Class Subject: Care of Magical Creatures**

**Category: Drabble**

**Prompt(s): [Creature] Sphinx**

**Word count: 946**

She yawned, trying to roll over in the comfortable, warm haze. She was not quite asleep, but not quite awake, but halted due to something digging into her shoulder blades.

Chione, Revered One, Daughter of Two Lands, growled at the offending object, but to no avail.

No servants scurried forward to remove it, there was no immediate outcry of humility; instead, there was silence and darkness. Hushed voices, so quiet that only her sensitive ears could pick them up.

Men.

Useless, the lot of them.

Blearily, she cracked open one eye, and then the other, staring at the featureless, wooden wall in front of her in confusion.

She was in a _box_.

Rolling onto her feet, she stood carefully, wings arching up to brush against the ceiling as she stretched, knocking once again into the opposing wall with a groan.

Several hundred years and she still felt as ungainly as a young cub when first waking up, unlike her older sister, always so poised and elegant.

It hadn't saved her when those funny little pink men first started to wander around Egypt. They had looked so tempting, acting so rudely. They returned in larger numbers, looking for their eaten comrades with their wands and their strange magic.

Where was she?

Chione sighed, unsheathing and resheathing her claws, the consistent _schtik-schtik_ noise almost lulling her to sleep as memories unspooled in front of her eyes.

A tournament, a competition.

Her eyes shot open once more, and she had to bite her tongue to hold in her delighted roar.

She was taking part in a tournament.

She, Chione, was important and could practice her craft on people other than those stupid little pink men, and the occasional grave robber who felt hungry or clever enough to risk stealing into her temple.

Chione purred in delight, a deep rumbling noise, and heard the distant voices stop.

Footsteps, cautious in the way they paused before resuming began to approach her box before they were overtaken by a stronger sounding pair. The man in question laughing at his hesitant companion as he passed him.

There were other creatures on this vessel, Chione realised. She could hear the muffled bellows of dragons as they were confined far away from their beloved sky, likely in boxes such as herself, but of far inferior quality.

A prickle of fear slipped down her spine and her feathers ruffling reflexively.

Had he lied?

Had this been a trick?

Her, once a priestess from the most exquisite temples this world had ever known – or would know, in her humble opinion – and now trapped in a tiny box to meet some horrible unknown fate?

A brief rap of knuckles on the front of her prison (so tiny and drab compared to the towering behemoths of her childhood) and a door was carefully slid open, the man outside pausing when it was halfway.

"Miss Chione? Just letting you know we're nearly in the UK."

"Why am I in this tiny box, human?" Chione sneered, stretching out one tawny paw to push the door open the rest of the way.

The human, pale skin that was tanned by the sun and littered with so many freckles he resembled the night sky, bowed, a little clumsily, but it made her want to preen. She arched to stretch out her wings so he could properly appreciate her majesty.

"It is, unfortunately, UK ministry law, Revered One." The man, Charlie Weasley he had introduced himself as. He smiled so sweetly at their first meeting. "But the journey is nearly over, and I will be bereft of your company once more."

Chione chuckled, coyly looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes.

"This competition, I will play a key role?"

"Yes," Charlie replied, reaching up to brace himself on the door to her box as the ship swayed beneath them. One of the dragons could be heard slamming up against its bonds. "You will decide the overall winner of the Tournament."

"And so they thought of me."

"Yes, Revered One. However, they are children, cubs. It was asked that you…"

Charlie hesitated, chewing on his cheek as he tried to find the correct words.

"Tailor your riddles to the participants?" he said after a long moment, nervously glancing at Chione to gauge her reaction.

She scoffed, tossing her hair back.

"Cub's play. I will not harm the cubs. However," she said as she leaned forward, smiling as sweetly as she could, making sure to tuck her claws away as he reflexively glanced down at them.

It was a shame, her claws were well maintained and sharp, but the men were so funny about those sort of things. "I require company for this trip. You will play my game of riddles, and I will give you a gift."

"You promise not to kill, maim, injure, lecture or in any way harm me during this game? I leave in exactly the same shape and level of wellness as when I entered?" Charlie asked, a gleam entering his eye even as he swayed in her doorway, hesitant and enthralled all at the same time.

This would be fun.

"No harm will befall you or the children by me or through my inaction," Chione promised, the tip of her tail twitching with delight. She was more modern now, shaped by the passage of time, smoothed like a stone under desert winds. It was more fun to play than to kill.

"Okay. Thank you."

Charlie stepped inside, the door closing behind him as Chione shuffled backwards to give him room, folding her paws beneath her.

"I'm tall when I'm young, short when I'm old. What am I?"


End file.
